Updated

Updated · Fox News · Sep 17

Illinois Mother Faces 3 Murder Counts in 2-Year-Old Son's Death as Husband Backs Her

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Sep 17

Illinois Mother Faces 3 Murder Counts in 2-Year-Old Son's Death as Husband Backs Her

Q: How did the unharmed infant and school-aged children escape the tragic fate that befell their two-year-old brother?

They appear to have escaped because they were not present in the immediate location of the killing and because a neighbor intervened as the scene was unfolding. Court records and hearing testimony indicate the 8-month-old infant was elsewhere in the home, left unsupervised on a carpeted area, but was physically unharmed. The two school-aged children were not home during the attack; prosecutors said they returned from school around the time Barrett was discovered. Their return seems to have triggered the emergency response. Accounts cited in the case say the children sought help from a neighbor, who then found Barrett in the basement, removed the ligature, attempted CPR, and called 911. The same neighbor also found Walsh upstairs with self-inflicted injuries, took a knife from her, and tried to stop the bleeding. Prosecutors have said Walsh later made statements about harming the other children as well, and the judge cited a threat to the surviving children in ordering her held without release. But based on the evidence made public so far, the infant and school-aged siblings were spared because they were either away from the scene or not directly targeted before the situation was interrupted and outside help arrived.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 17

Corie Walsh, 38, is accused of killing her 2-year-old son Barrett on Sept. 1 after telling officers she believed he was the "devil" and "anti-Christ"; her husband and mother are standing by her, defense lawyers said.
Will County prosecutors want Walsh held without pretrial release, saying she strangled Barrett and also plotted to poison him while becoming deeply focused on the Lindsay Clancy child-murder trial.
Barrett was found hanging from a basement rafter by a neighbor who tried CPR; he was pronounced dead that day, and the cause was ruled asphyxia due to ligature compression of the neck.
Defense attorney Andrea Lyon said Walsh was in a psychotic episode and rejected any copycat link to Clancy, while former Chicago detective Eugene Roy said psychiatric defenses in child-murder cases are very rare.
The case now turns on whether Walsh's acknowledged mental illness can blunt a prosecution centered on a toddler's killing that authorities say was deliberate.